Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is Factory Mutual Insurance Co.’s Largest Position

Factory Mutual Insurance Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,146,098 shares of the software giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 5.4% of Factory Mutual Insurance Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Factory Mutual Insurance Co.’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $430,979,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sicart Associates LLC boosted its position in Microsoft by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Sicart Associates LLC now owns 926 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $348,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in Microsoft by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,866 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $1,434,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. O Connor Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. O Connor Financial Group LLC now owns 2,191 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $692,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. Navis Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Microsoft by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Navis Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $476,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. Finally, Kaizen Financial Strategies increased its stake in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Kaizen Financial Strategies now owns 7,807 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $2,936,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 71.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MSFT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. KeyCorp started coverage on shares of Microsoft in a report on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $490.00 target price for the company. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Microsoft from $480.00 to $475.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. BNP Paribas raised Microsoft from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $471.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Microsoft from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Microsoft from $460.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirty-five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $434.05.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MSFT opened at $407.57 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $414.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $386.93. Microsoft Co. has a twelve month low of $275.37 and a twelve month high of $430.82. The company has a market capitalization of $3.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The software giant reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.17. Microsoft had a net margin of 36.27% and a return on equity of 38.40%. The business had revenue of $62.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.32 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 11.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. Microsoft’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 159,764 shares in the company, valued at $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Microsoft news, EVP Kathleen T. Hogan sold 21,955 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.96, for a total transaction of $8,868,941.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 159,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,538,265.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Corp Microsoft sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.95, for a total transaction of $1,950,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,677,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,770,926.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,070,258 shares of company stock worth $30,690,456. 0.03% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.